Prevalence and Associated Factors of Low Back Pain among Adolescent Athletes from an Athletics Club: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Low back pain (LBP) in adolescent athletes may lead to a significant lost playing time and thus reduce their performance and compromise their career. The aim of our study was to determine the one-year prevalence of LBP and its associated factors in adolescent athletes. Methods: A cross-sectional study including adolescent athletes from a Tunisian athletics club. LBP prevalence and circumstances were noticed. Training characteristics and flexibility of the lumbar spine and lower extremities were studied. Results: We included 141 young athletes with a mean age of 16.42 ± 1.76 years. The sex ratio was 1.23. Athletes practiced 3 types of sports: running (n = 67), throwing (n = 42) and jumping (n = 32). The average length of sport practice was 4 ± 2 years. The one-year prevalence of LBP was 60.2%. Athletes with LBP history were older (p = 0.004) and had a higher BMI (p = 0.003) and poorer spinal flexibility (p = 0.008) than athletes with no LBP. The practice duration was not significantly different between the two groups. Athletes practicing throwing sports had higher prevalence of LBP (73.8%) than those practicing running (56.7%) and jumping (50%) without statistical significance (p = 0.083). The main circumstance of LBP onset was “an intense training session”. Quadriceps tightness was an associated factor with LBP only for adolescents practicing jumping (p = 0.026). In conclusion, prevalence of LBP in adolescent athletes remains high. Older age, high BMI, high practicing years and poor spine flexibility seem to be associated with the onset of LBP. Further high-quality studies assessing more epidemiological, anatomical and sports characteristics are still needed.